Sagging pants law seldom enforced

Monday

Feb 25, 2013 at 10:52 AM

Lafourche’s saggy-pants law has been enforced fewer than 50 times since its 2007 creation.

Xerxes Wilson Staff Writer

Lafourche’s saggy-pants law has been enforced fewer than 50 times since its 2007 creation. The law bans “indecent exposure” of a person’s “below-waist undergarments.”According to Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office records, 45 people have been ticketed in the law’s five-year existence. “That’s a low number. I could get 45 in one hour if I wanted,” said Lafourche Parish Councilman Lindel Toups, who introduced the ordinance. “It’s everywhere. You go out there with your grandkids and you see people with their pants hanging past their drawers, showing their butt.” Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said his deputies use discretion when enforcing the law and have also handed out a number of warnings. “We do not have a baggy-pants task force that spends its time looking for that particular violation,” Webre said. Webre said the law is often enforced when someone is being charged with a separate crime. Webre said deputies decide whether a violation or warning is issued. “It is going to be a discretion-based thing,” Webre said. “If the person is cooperative, doesn’t have a history, no other criminal activity and remedies the problem, they will likely end up with a warning.” Webre noted there is some vagueness in the saggy-pants law. “The law is very broadly written. We try to enforce it in a straight-forward fashion in the spirit of what it is to address,” Webre said.The ordinance seeks to target a person who “intentionally wears and displays his or her below-waist underwear” or “displays the skin under which said below-waist underwear was intended to cover.”Webre said the vagueness comes in because different types of underwear are intended to cover different amounts of skin. “To the extent you are talking about underwear, a pair of boxer shorts covers a lot more than a G-string. That is where the most vagueness comes it,” Webre said.After the law was first passed, the Lafourche Parish Council reworked it to take out language that banned “dress not becoming of his or her sex.” Marjorie Esman, the executive director of Louisiana’s American Civil Liberties Union, said the law was improved by that change, but questions over its constitutionality remain. Esman said state law defines obscenity as exposure of genitalia and prohibits local governments from regulating obscenity more specifically. Webre said he has no authority to determine the constitutionality of a law. When a law is passed by the council, the general rule is that it is presumed to be constitutional until a judge rules otherwise, Webre said. Webre said to his knowledge, nobody has challenged the constitutionality of the law. “There is definitely an argument to be made over whether it is constitutional or not,” Webre said. “Someone would have to raise that issue, then the court would make a determination.”Violation of the law brings a $50 fine for the first offense, $100 for a second offense and $100 and 16 hours of community service for a third offense.When the law was being debated, there was discussion over whether it targeted young black men.“It doesn’t target anyone, you see (sagging pants) just as much with white people as black people,” Toups said. Webre said the law is most commonly violated by young men, but he would not speculate on the racial background of the 45 violators.“I don’t believe the intent of the law was to target young, black males,” Webre said. “The intent of the law was to prohibit that type of dress.”

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